Williams says Transco’s NC, VA expansion project in full service
US pipeline operation Williams said December 30 its Southside Reliability Enhancement project on its Transco interstate system is now in full service, adding about 420mn ft3/day of fully contracted pipeline capacity to serve demand in North Carolina and Virginia.
“The on-time completion of this latest project underscores our team’s ability to execute large-scale expansions in a careful, efficient, safe and environmentally responsible manner,” Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said. “Our entire team continues to execute on a full portfolio of transmission growth projects to meet accelerating natural gas demand in the US for LNG exports, power generation from data centre load growth and the reshoring of energy intensive manufacturing that is taking advantage of low-cost natural gas supplies here at home.”
Transco’s latest expansion project comes online as heating season demand loads have quickly ramped up, with the system experiencing record and near-record loads in December, including an all-time three-day peak of 49.3bn ft3. On December 22, Transco achieved all-time peak loads of about 17.4bn ft3 across its system and peak loads in New York City of more than 2.2bn ft3.
“Continued demand growth, completion of the Southside Reliability Enhancement in addition to our recent Regional Energy Access project, and in-service of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Interconnect continue to support strong system growth for the heating season,” Armstrong said.
The Southside Reliability Enhancement project included the construction of a new all-electric compression station and additional electric compressor capacity in Virginia and upgrades and enhancements to existing meter stations in North Carolina. With the expansion, Transco’s system-design capacity now sits at some 19.6bn ft3/day making the 10,200-mile transmission system, extending from south Texas to New York City, the largest-volume system in the US, moving about 20% of total US natural gas production.